Tuesday

We had no Internet last night so could not do my blog.
We had heavy rain yesterday morning and Moo, our Thai cleaning lady, brought us another umbrella. I thought, "How nice of her" Jon said "Oh, we must be in for a lot of rain if they are giving out more umbrellas! Any tips for living with a negative man would be most welcome!!

Well the rain didn't last long and we were able to go into town, well just down the road, and have a coffee and then we walked around the shops. Norfolk Island is duty free and their speciality is European shoes. I think they have more choice here on this little island than in the whole of NZ and half the price, I was in heaven.

We finally settled on a pair for Jon for the wedding and a pair for me for the wedding and I bought some lovely brown, ankle boots and a handbag to go with the shoes. So all sorted but maybe we might just buy some more!

We had lunch and then came back to the cottage and went off driving around the island. It is very easy to find your way around as it is so small and all roads eventually lead back to Burnt Pine Township, which is basically one main street. There are only four street lights on the whole island, three are on the mini roundabout and one outside the school which is why we were given a torch on arrival!

I wanted to buy some fruit as I am really missing but still nothing in the supermarket so we went down to the butcher and veg shop. I went in and looked around and could only see lettuce, onions, potatoes, terrible carrots, ku area and melon!!!!! Have you any apples I asked "No apples" he said with a snort. End of conversation. I really don't know how they get their five a day here?  We did manage to buy two, not too ripe bananas from a box outside a shop which also had pickled onions and some terrible looking carrots in it. There was a jar to put the money in. I don't think you could do that in many places around the world. We have noticed that it is only the hire cars that are locked all the locals leave them open and the windows open, too! How life used to be!

We drove to the Captain Cook Monument which is a lovely spot at the top of the island with beautiful views of the blue, blue water. We passed lots of cows on the roads. They are all individually owned and they owner buys an ear tag for the cow and then it can graze anywhere it wants. When it is time to kill it the vet goes down to the road where it is, shoots it and it is then taken to the butcher all very humane and makes for beautiful, tender meat.

We booked a table to go to Norfolk Blue restaurant for 6.15 (we eat early here to get back before it is too dark to find our way as there are not many road signs). This restaurant breeds the Norfolk Blue beef and the cows are a blue, grey colour and the beef is very tasty. We just had 'naked' sirloin with vegetables and it was delicious followed by the biggest knickerbocker glory I have ever eaten!

The staff at the restaurant were very attentive and nothing was too much trouble. They made sure we were surrounded by candles and burning sticks and a spray to keep us safe from the insects.

We managed to find our way home and due to no Internet we were in bed very early.













WEATHER
Heavy rain first thing then sunny with some cloud.